Mowing machine



4 Sheets-Sheet 1 May 13 19249 x. SCHONMETZLER MOWING MACHINE Filed March 14 1922 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 x. scHbNMETzLER MOWING MACHINE Filed March 14,

.III It!!! May 13, 1924.

x. SCHbNMETZLER MOWING MACHINE Filed March 14, 1922 4 Shets-Sheet 5 May 1 3, 1924. 1,493,569

X. SCHONMETZLER MOWING MACHINE Filed March 14. 1922 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Patented May 13, 1%24.

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XAVER, SCI-IGNMETZLFJR, OF IVIEMIVIINGEN, GERMANY, ASSIGNOR TO ARTHUR MIILLER BAUTEN UNI) INDUSTRIEW'ERKE, OLE JOI-IANNISTHAL, NEAR, BERLIN, GERMANY.

MOYVING MACHINE;

Application filed March 14:, 1922. Serial No. 543,609.

To aZZ whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, XAVER Sorrtinnrnrz- LER, a citizen of Germany, residing at Memmingen, Bavaria, Germany, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Mowing Machines, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates in general to mowing machines and more particularly to a device for adjusting the cutter bar in a machine of this kind.

An object of the invention is to produce a simplified adjusting device for raising, lowering, and swinging the cutter bar of mowing machines in a convenient manner, the device being arranged to be actuated in a known manner by a foot lever and a hand lever. I

Another feature of the invention relates to means by which the mechanism for reciprocating the cutter of the finger'bar is prevented from being thrown into gear before the finger .bar has been fully swung down from its vertical position into its horizontal position. By this means jamming and other trouble, that often occursv in known machines through the cutter driving mechanism being thrown into gear before the finger bar has been completely swung into its horizontal position, is avoided. In accordance with another feature of the invention the inner end or shoe of the finger bar is prevented from sinking or dropping down into contact with the ground before the operation of swinging the finger bar from its vertical into its horizontal position is completed.

By means of the novel finger-bar adjusting device the following advantages are obtained, of which only some are accomplished by known adjusting devices.

1. By a peculiar arrangement of levers *the lifting and lowering of the finger bar can be effected both by a foot lever and a hand-lever. The swinging of the finger b r into its vertical position can only be'car ried out by means of the hand-lever after the bar has been raised by means of the foot lever.

Q. T he manipulation of the adjusting device is greatly facilitated by the hand lever being made to act upon the adjusting device with much greater purchase than the foot lever. By this means a compensatory effect is obtained for the difliculties consist- 1ng Firstly, in the fact that at the commencement of the operation of swinging up the finger bar by means ofthe hand-lever the resistance to be overcome is considerably greater than that which has to be overcome when the bar is swung up by means of the foot lever,which is usually employed for effecting this operation, and

Secondly in the fact that the force that can be exerted by the hand is smaller than that applicable by the foot.

In spite of the fact that the adjusting device is arranged to be actuated in various ways, or, in other words, although the actuation of the adjusting device in raising and lowering the finger bar can be effected both by means of the hand-lever and the foot lever, and the actuation of the adjusting device in swinging up the finger bar can only be effected by means of the hand-lever after the bar has been raised by means of the foot lever, and the swinging down of the bar can only be effected by means of the hand lever, the adjusting device is always moved positively and no lost motion can occur during any of the said motions and shifting operations.

A constructional form of the invention is shown in the drawing in which- Fig. 1 is a side view partly shown in section of thenovel mowing machine in position for action,

Fig. 2 is a plan view of Fig. 1,

Fig. 3 a rear view of Fig. 1,

Fig. 4 a rear view of some of the parts associated with the finger bar with the latter raised from the ground,

Fig. 5 a similar view to 4: but with the finger bar swung up into its vertical position, I

Fig. 6 a side view corresponding to Fig. 1 showing the clutch and clutch controlling gear for starting and stopping the operation of the cutter, the parts being shown in this figure in the position in which the clutch is out of gear.

In Figs. 7-1O the lever mechanism of the adjusting device is shown on a larger scale, Fig. 7 showingthe hand and foot levers in their raised positions and Fig. 8 showing the foot lever lowered while the hand-lever is still in its raised position. Fig. 9 1s a plan view of Fig. 8. In Fig. both the foot and hand levers are lowered or swung down.

The mowing machine into which the novel linger bar adjusting device is fitted may be of any preferred type. In the machine illustrated an axle or driving shaft 12, supported and driven by two wheels 13 at its ends, is journalled in the frame 11. Also keyed to the driving shaft 12 is a large spur wheel 14 that engages with the pinion 15. The latter is connected with a. large bevel wheel 16 that meshes with a small bevelled wheel 17. The bevelled wheel 17 is loosely mounted on the shaft 18 to which it can be coupled by means of a clutch 19 adapted to be moved axially on the shaft 18, but secured against rotation relatively thereto. The operation of coupling the bevelled wheel 17 with the shaft 18 by shifting the clutch member 19 is performed by means of a small three-armed lever 22 provided with two foot plates 20 and 21 (see Figs. 1, 2, 3 and 6) and whose third arm is linked by means of an intermediate lever 23 to a lever 24. The common movable joint between the levers 23 and 24 is connected by means of a'rod 25 to a fork 26 that engages with the coupling member 19. By pressing down the foot plate 21 (see F ig. 6) the coupling is thrown out of gear. and it is thrown into gear by depressing the foot plate 20. In the position shown in Fig. (l the third arm of the three-armed lever 22 and the lever 23 have been moved into such positions that the coupling can not be thrown into gear by any force e erted on the lever 24, but only by treading on the foot plate 20.

The operation of throwing the coupling into gear can, however, be performed not only by treading on. the foot plate 21. but it can also be performed automatically by means of the hand-lever 61 that controls the finger-bar adjusting-device in the manner described more ful y hereinafter. To this end the lever 24 is fixed to the left end (Fig. 3) of a horizontal shaft 27. to whose right end a small lever 23 is fixed which is actuated by the hand-lever 61 in a manner hereinafter more fully descril'ied.

lilounted on the forward end of the sh aft (Fig. 1) is a disk 29 with a wrist pin Linked to the wrist pin is a connecting rod 30 by means of which .reci nrocating motion imparted to the cutter 31. in the finger bar 37.3. The finger bar is pi votally attached to the shoe 34 by means of the pivot The siioe 34 is linked to the fra me of the machine so as to be capable of be ing raised and lowered in a known man nor. To this end the shoe- 34 is attached to one end of a rod 36 (whoseother end turns on a pivot andto an oblique drag rod 38 that can he swung around a pivot 37. The finger bar 32 is raised and swung up into a vertical position in the manner indicated in Figs. 3, 4 and Arranged to turn around a pivot 40 attached to the shoe 34 is a two-armed lever 39. The left end of the lever 39 is held up by chain 41 whose lower end can be hooked. into any one of the plurality of holes 42 of the lever 39. The right end of the lever 39 is formed in the shape of a toothed sector 43 which meshes with another toothed see tor 44 that is rigidly connected with the finger bar 32. The effective length of the levers and the weights of the parts affected by them are so proportioned that when the chain 41 is drawn up the turning movement exerted on the finger bar 32 by the toothed. sector 43 is equal to the oppositelyncting turning movement that the finger bar exerts around the pivot by reason of own weight. Hence, when the chain 4-1 is raised, the finger bar is first elevated from its operative position (see Fig. 3) up to the position shown in F ig. 4 without being caused to swing upward around its inner end. In this intermediate position the rod 36 strikes against a stop 45. If the chain 41 be now pulled up further. further elevation of the shoe 34 to which the pivot 33 is attached will be prevented and the two toothed sectors 43 and 44 will now cause the finger bar 32 to swing up around its pivot into the vertical position shown in Fig. 5.

Attached to the machine frame 11 by means of screws 46, see Fig. 9, is a bearing block 47 with a sector-shaped upright 48 which carries the pivots on which the various levers belonging to the finger-bar adjusting-device are journalled. Journalled on the pivot 49 is a bell crank lever 50*, 50 to whose arm 5O an intermediate lever 51 is linked which carries the chain 41. At its outer end the arm 5O has a projection or stop 52 against which a motion-limiting screw 53 of the intermediate lever 51 abuts. hen the arm 50 is in the position shown in Fig. 7 the stop 52 will not be in contact with the screw and therefore the intermediate lever 51 will be able to swing round so as to line up with the elevating chain 41. But when the arm 50 is swung into the position shown in Fig. 8 the stop 52 contacts with the screw 53 and, when the arm 5O is swung around further. the intermediate arm 51 will have the effect of increasing the leverage by which the chain 41 is raised. The position at which this increasing effect of the intermediate lever 51 commences can be adjusted by turning the screw 53. Also journalled on the pin 49 is the foot-lever 54 provided with a lug or dog 55 which, in the position shown in Fig. 7, contacts with a set screw 56 in the arm 50. It will thus be evident. that by treading on the foot lever 54 the bell crank lever 50*, 50* can be rocked into the position shown in Fig. 8 to raise the finger bar 32 out of the position shown in Fig. 3 into the position shown in Fig. 4. J ournalled on the pin 49 is, finally, also a hook-shaped detent 57 which can be rocked by a spring 58 into contact with a stop 59. lVhen the bell crank lever 50 50 is swung around from the position shown in Fig. 7 into the position of Fig. 8, and the shoe 34 carrying the finger bar 32 is thus lifted into the position of Fig. 4, the simultaneously-raised oblique rod 38 pushes the hook 57 aside until the latter can grip the oblique rod 38 from below as indicated in Fig. 8. The shoe 34 can now only be lowered again after the oblique rod 38 is released by the hook 57. A further rocking movement beyond the position shown in Fig. 8 and into the position shown in Fig. 10 cannot be imparted to the bell crank lever 50 50 by means of the foot lever 54, because further movement of the foot lever 54 is prevented by its having struck against the frame 11 of the machine. The foot lever 54 does not however, prevent the bell crank lever 50, 50 from being swung round into the position shown in Fig. 10. Journalled on the pin 60 that is fixed to the bearing block 47 is a hand lever 61 which slides against the side of the sector 48 and which is adapted to be held in various positions by a pawl (not shown) adapted for engagement with recesses 62 in the periphery of the sector.

The hand-lever is prevented from being moved clockwise beyond the position shown in Fig. 7 by a stop 63. The hand-lever 61 has a short arm 64 to which a lever 65 is linked, which, in turn, is linked by an in termediate lever 66 to the arm 50. The lever 65 and the intermediate lever 66 form a toggle joint and can be moved from the position in which their three pivots are in alignment, both upwardly into the position shown in Fig. 7, in which the lever 65 strikes against a dog 67 fixed to the lever 66, and downwardly into the position shown in Figs. 8 and 10, in which an extension 68 of the lever 65 strikes against another side of the same dog or stop 67. When the foot lever 54 and the hand-lever 61 are in the position shown in Figs. 1 and 7 the raising of the cutter bar from the position shown in Fig. 3 into that shown in Fig. 4 can be effected by lowering the hand-lever 61, instead of depressing the foot lever for this purpose as described above. hen this is done the levers 65 and 66 remain in their upwardly inclined positions, (that is the position in which they form an upwardly bent elbow as shown in Fig. 7) while the foot lever 54 is, swung down into its lowest position by its own gravity. The positions assumed by various parts when the finger bar is raised in this manner are not shown in the drawing. The finger bar is usually not raised in this manner, this operation being generally carried out by depressing the foot lever 54 as described above. When the foot lever 54 is swung down for this purpose the left hand pivot of the lever 65 remains stationary, while the right hand pivot of the lever or link 66 moves towards the right so that the elbow consisting of two levers 65 and 66 is gradually straightened, and when the operator ceases to depress the foot-lever 54 the said elbow drops into a downwardly bent position as shown in Fig. 8, this dropping of the elbow being caused by the gravity of the levers 65, 66. lVhen the hand-lever 61 now is swung down into the position shown in Fig. 10 its short arm 64 will act through the elbow or toggle 65,

.66 (which, when bent downwardly, forms a stifl member) on the arm 50", and as the arm 50 forms a much longer lever than the arm 64 of the hand-lever 61 it will be swung through a much smaller angle than the latter. The swinging motion thus imparted to the bell crank lever 50", 50 results in the finger bar 32 being swung up into the position shown in Fig. 5. The moment the swinging of the finger bar to its vertical position commences, the driving mechanism of the cutter is thrown out of gear and kept locked in its inoperative position so as to prevent its being thrown on again bydepression of the foot lever.

The. clutch gear is thrown off and kept locked by the following means: The handlever 61 is provided with a cam 69. \Vhen the operation of swinging down the handlever 61 is commenced, the cam 69 swings a roll 71, and a lever 70 to which theroll is attached, towards the right. and by this means a bent horizontal rod 72 linked to the lever-'70 is shifted towards the right. The left end of the rod 72 carries a bifurcated member 73 embracing the lever 28. A pin 74 projecting from both sides of the lever 28 extends into slots 75 in the bifurcated member 73. The lower edge of the rod 72 bears upon a detent 76 fixed on a releasing lever 77 which will be hereinafter more fully described. A notch 78 in the lower edge of the rod 72 is adapted for engagement with the detent 76. When the lever 28 is in the position shown in Figs. 8 and 1 the cutter driving mechanism is thrown into gear (see Fig. 1). The pin 74 lies at the left end of the slot 75, so that it can be moved towards the right up to the other end of the slot 7 5 without affecting the horizontal bar 72. Therefore, as long as the hand-lever 61 is in its vertical position (Figs. 1 and 8), the cutter driving mechanism can be thrown out of gear by depressing the foot plate 21. But the uncoupling of the cutter takes place automatically as soon as the hand-lever 61 is moved towards the left through a small angle from the vertical position shown in Fig. 8, because the rod 72 is then shifted towards the right and the lever 28 is thus rocked into the position shown in Figs. 6 and 10 in which the cutter driving mecha- .nism is thrown out of gear. lVhen the rod 72 is shifted towards the right, the detent 76 enters the notch 78 and thus locks the rod '72 in its right hand position. This secures the driving mechanism of the cutter against being thrown into gear by depression of the foot plate 20. The vertical finger bar 32 can now be swung down into the position shown in Fig. 4 by swinging the lever 61 back into its vertical position shown in Fig. 8.

After the hand-lever has been moved to vertical position the rod 72 still remains locked in its right hand position, and the oblique rod 38 is kept locked in its raised posi tion by the hook 57. Both of the said members 72, 38 can be released by depressing or treading on the left arm of the releasing lever 77 that is journalled on the pin 79. The detent 76 then leaves the notch 78 so that the rod 72 can shift towards the left to permit of the cutter driving mechanism being thrown into gear by treading on the foot plate 20. The hoolcshaped detent 57 is simultaneously caused to release the oblique bar 38 by the right hand arm of the lever 77 striking against a bulging surface of the detent 57. As long as the elbow or toggle 65, 66 has its members inclined downwardly, as shown in Fig. 8, the release of the oblique bar 38 by the detent 57 would not of itself enable the finger bar suspended from the chain il to be lowered from the raised position of Fig. 4 into the operating position of Fig. 3, because the arm which has a clockwise turning moment imparted to it by the load on the chain 11, transmits its turning moment, through the stiff elbow or toggle 65, 66 and through the short arm 64, to the hand-lever 61 abutting against the stop 63. Therefore, to enable the arm 50 together with the arm 50 to rotate clockwise so as to permit of a lowering of the chain 11 the elbow 65, 66, which is stiff in the position shown in Fig. 8, must have its members 65, 66 rocked upwards. This latter function is also performed at the moment the left arm of the lever 77 is depressed. The member of the elbow has a prolongation 80 which extends beyond its left hand pivot and cooperates with a pin 81 on the lever 77. When the lever 77 is depressed the pin 81 swings the member 65 upward and the elbow then goes into the position shown in Fig. 7 to shorten the distance between the end pivots of its members 65, 66 and permits the bell crank lever 50, 50 to swing clockwise into the position shown in Fig. 7, so as to lower the finger bar into its operating position (Fig. The finger bar is prevented from dropping too rapidly by the foot lever 54 being held by one foot and allowed to swing down slowly.

I claim:

1. In a mowing machine, a pivoted finger bar, a raising and lowering mechanism for the bar comprising a pivoted bell-crank lever, means connecting one arm of the latter with the finger bar, a hand lever, a toggle joint including links connecting the free arm of the bell crank lever with the hand lever, means for moving the links of the joint into alinement, and means for limiting the relative angular position of said links.

2. In a mowing machine, a pivoted finger bar. a raising and lowering mechanism for said bar, a pivoted bell-crank lever, means connecting one arm of the latter with the finger bar, a pivoted hand lever having a long arm and a short arm, a toggle joint including links connecting the short arm of the hand lever to the free arm of the bell crank lever, means for moving the links of the toggle-joint into alinement, and means for limiting the relative angular position of said links.

3. In a mowing machine, a pivoted finger bar. a raising and lowering mechanism for said bar, a pivoted bell-crank lever, means connecting one arm of the latter with the finger-bar, a pivoted hand lever having a long arm and a short arm, a toggle-joint including links connecting the short arm of the hand lever to the free arm of the bellcrank lever, a foot lever adapted to rock the bell-crank lever and move the links of the toggle-joint into alinement for being operated by the hand lever.

4. In a mowing machine, a pivoted finger bar, a raising and lowering mechanism for said bar, a. pivoted bell-crank lever, means connecting one arm of the latter with the finger-bar. a pivoted hand lever having a long arm and a short arm, a toggle-joint including links connecting the short arm of the hand lever to the free arm of the bellcrank lever, a foot lever adapted to rock the bell-crank lever and move the links of the toggle joint into alinement for being operated: by the hand lever, and a releasing lever for moving the links of the toggle joint out of alinement.

In a mowing machine, a pivoted finger bar, a raising and lowering mechanism for said bar comprising a pivoted bell-crank lever, a suspension member connecting one arm of the latter with the finger bar, a foot lever for rocking the bell-crank lever through a certain angle, a pivoted hand lever for continuing the movement of the bell-crank lever and a connection between the latter and hand lever to determine the angle through which said hell-crank lever and hand lever are turned relatively to each other.

6. In a mowing machine, a pivoted finger bar, a raising and lowering mechanism for said bar comprising a pivoted bell-crank lever, a suspension member connecting one arm of the latter with the finger bar, a footlever for rocking the bell-crank lever through a certain angle, a pivoted hand lever for continuing the movement of the bell-crank lever, a connection between the latter and hand lever to determine the angle through which said bell-crank lever and hand lever are turned relatively to each other, and a hook-shaped detent adapted to automatically lock the finger-bar in raised position, I

7 In a mowing machine, a pivoted finger bar, a raising and lowering mechanism for said bar comprising a pivoted bell-crank lever, a suspension member connecting one arm of the latter with the finger bar, a footlever for rocking the bell-crank lever through a certain angle, a pivoted hand lever for continuing the movement of the bell-crank lever, a connection between the latter and hand lever to determine the angle through which said bell-crank lever and hand lever are turned relatively to each other, a hook-shaped detent adapted to automaticallv lock the finger-bar in raised position, and means to swing the detent out of locking position.

8. In a mowing machine, a pivoted finger-bar, a raising and lowering mechanism for said bar comprising a pivoted bell-crank lever, means connecting one arm of the latter with the finger-bar, a foot-lever for rocking the bell-crank lever through a certain angle, a pivoted hand-lever having a short arm fixed thereto, articulated links connected to said short arm and to the free arm of the bell crank lever, means for moving the links into different relative positions, and means for limiting the relative movement of the links.

9. In a mowing machine, a machine frame, a frame in swinging connection with the machine frame, a shoe pivoted on the swinging frame, a finger bar carried by the shoe, a cutter in the finger bar, a pivoted bell-crank lever, a suspension member connecting one arm of the bell-crank lever with the shoe, a pivoted hand lever having a long arm and a short arm, articulated links pivotally connected to said short arm and to the free arm of the cell-crank lever, a foot lever for rocking the bell-crank lever, whereby the link connection is extended, stops for limiting the movements of the links, a detent adapted to support the swinging frame, a releasing lever for actuating the link connection and for throwing the detent out of engagement with the swinging frame, means for reciprocating the cutter, a clutch for controlling the reci rocating means, and means for actuating t 1e clutch operable by the hand lever.

10. In a mowing machine, a cutter frame pivoted on the machine frame, a shoe pivoted on the cutter frame, a finger-bar carried by the shoe, a cutter in the finger bar, mechanism including a clutch for reciprocating the cutter, a pivoted bell-crank lever having one arm connected with the shoe, a pivoted hand-lever having a short arm, :1. toggle-joint connecting said short-arm to the free arm of the bell-crank lever, a piv oted detent having a hooked end adapted to support the cutter frame, a foot lever adapted to rock the bell-crank lever and move the toggle-joint into position for operation by the hand-lever, stops on the toggle-joint for limiting the movements of the latter, a clutch operating bar actuated by the movement of the hand lever, means for locking the clutch operating bar, and means for releasing the latter and simultaneously actuating the detent to release the cutter frame.

In testimony whereof I have signed this specificationin the presence of two witnesses.

XAVER SCI-ICNMETZLER.

Witnesses:

ARTHUR SoHRonDnR, JOHN W. BULKLEY. 

